Pressing On

The question mark should help you differentiate the blog title from a song title of one of my favourite prog rock bands of the seventies - if you don't know what I am talking about then just let it pass, if you do please read on, though I hope you won't be too disappointed to discover that it has no further connection with music! As is my want I am in the habit of seeking the Lord for a word at the beginning of each new year. Of course it is not the only time in the year when the Lord speaks but I have found it a healthy discipline and have, at the end of the year, been very blessed to look back and see how apt the word has been. (But then this should not surprise in the least as we know that He knows the end from the beginning...) I share these thoughts with you for two reasons: Firstly, anything based on the word of God has to be good for edifying and building people up, and I hope that this is the case for any and all who stumble upon this blog. Secondly, I trust ...

Tomorrow morning I will be serving with a number of other people as we embark on an Alpha course. Hopefully Alpha should need no introduction, and this is not the point of this blog, it does however provide the springboard to my thought - What needs to happen post-Alpha, or indeed however we come to faith, in order to see people getting into the habit of growing as disciples? This is not simply a ' good idea ' it is crucial if we are to fulfil the mandate given to the Church ... not only because disciples should be the outcome of our ministries, but also because disciples are needed to do the ministry in the first place. I quote Mike Breen from his sobering article  on why he feels the missional movement might fail " Sending people out to do mission is to send them out to a war zone. Discipleship is not only the boot camp to train them for the front lines, but the hospital when they get wounded and the off-duty time they need to rest and recuperate. "  My personal...

Twice a year we orient new workers into ministry with WEC International during which time we try and communicate the values upon which WEC is built to a degree sufficient for new workers to understand and commit to. Now, of course, these values are aspirational, in the sense that we do not live them out perfectly all of the time ...  The four values are faith, holiness, sacrifice and fellowship ... I may turn to others values in later posts, but for this post I wanted to focus on holiness. Partly because I have just finished reading some of JC Ryle's notes, which were extremely helpful and partly because it is a topic rarely reached on today and in need of reflection - in my opinion.  The author of the book of Hebrews exhorts us with a clear word "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." Heb 12:14 By 'see' we mean to gaze at with wide-open eyes at something (or someone) amazing . In...

Read this recently by a man called Ray Stedman. Adapted it a little to personalise it, but what a great summary prayer to an excellent commentary. My Gracious Father, I ask that you who have called me with a holy calling, have imparted to me the Holy Spirit, and given me your Holy Word, may keep me and make me to be faithful. Give me the diligence of a farmer, the discipline of an athlete and the dedication of a soldier that will make me equal to the times in which I live. Father grant that my eyes may be lifted above the common place obscurity of my every day life to the great things that lie beyond the invisible curtain and see myself living constantly in your presence, even in this hour. Challenge my heart to be strong in the midst of weakness, and to be faithful in the midst of that which is false. I ask in Jesus' name, Amen. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

One of the downsides of twitter, facebook etc. is the growth in accessibility of sound bites, especially when we are limited to 140 characters. Each sound bite or slogan can seem so plausible, and maybe readily accepted, unless you take time to think a little more deeply into them. An example of this would be a tweet I read last year which confidently stated that "If it is not miraculous then God is not in it!" ... which might sound great but the more you think about it the more one realises that perhaps God is, in fact, very much present in the mundane things of life. Another quote that I have been thinking about recently is this "A crisis is really an opportunity" ... Now, when crises present themselves to us we do have a choice as to how we respond to them - and rather than respond as helpless and hapless victims, we can respond in faith or rather in trusting God, who is good 'all the time'. However, when this type of statement is made by Christians it ca...

What difference does it make to be a Christian? What does our relationship with God mean in the ongoing machinations of life? For some there might be some expectation that becoming a child of the Living God might mean that He, in His Sovereign power, will construct a wall around all His children, protecting them from anything bad ... after all, He wants to bless us right? No doubt, the first few weeks of life as a Christian demonstrated that this is not the case, but rather than allow your experience to cause you to doubt His presence use it to drive you further into experiencing His presence in all that you go through. In Hebrews 4:16 we read "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need" (ESV) It has been a long time since I have written anything in this blog, and I suppose what has been happening since I last wrote is indication sometimes blogging is not a priority. There are times when mini...

Due to the fact that I am a verbal reasoner, someone who prefers to talk things out rather than write about things, as well as the fact that in my current role a lot of time is spent on laptops writing emails, debrief reports, Conference minutes, vision statements etc. etc. ... you know 'the fun things!' ... I have recently been exploring options for less typing and more talking - which will alleviate the admin burden but also make tasks themselves perhaps more enjoyable. Here are my three easy solutions tried thus far and comments ... 1/ Phone a friend (or Skype) ... the bad thing about email is that it is a trap - People email me, I email a response ... but does it need to be this way? If people email me I could always ring them back ... duuuhh! However this is not as easy as it sounds ... if a response is required then I can write an email when it suits me, ie I am in control of the time, if I phone then they have to be available to take my call and talk - this is n...